Drones: Coming (Maybe) Soon to Skies Near You

"Commercial interest in the civilian drone market is considerable, and it's easy to see why given the technology's potential for monitoring traffic, keeping an eye on crops, predicting the weather, fighting fires, and surveying damage from storms and other disasters. Such tasks are now typically handled by helicopter, which is costly and occasionally dangerous. The use of unmanned aircraft would seem to offer useful applications in all these instances without a danger to a pilot and passenger."